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Give the Stanton Street bike lane time

In reply to Victor Caire’s letter on the new Stanton Street bike lane, remember that it is in the Downtown-UTEP corridor, where there is also a new trolley car, where a new El Paso Community College building is going up, where there is a new farmers market, where lots of new things are happening. I would ask him to submit a new letter in five years, when the trail is well-known and a familiar part of the ride up Stanton to UTEP, Cincinnati entertainment, and the bike shop. It's the ride down that I'm most appreciative for, not having to worry about cars coming up to me from behind, or pedestrians on the sidewalk. I'm proud to live in one of the most progressive neighborhoods in the city.

City not interested in listening to its citizens

It is very disappointing to see how former Mayor Oscar Leeser, Mayor Dee Margo, and the City Council are handling the arena dispute. I don’t believe they have been transparent and it seems they are not interested in listening to the population. The dispute on whether to build the arena in Duranguito should be up to the citizens to decide. Why doesn’t the location of the arena get put on a ballot? I voted for the quality of life bond, including the arena, but I would have voted no had I known how it would be handled. The bond did state the arena would be Downtown, but it did not state it would be in Duranguito. I did not know much about Duranguito before. However, I have visited the area several times and I firmly believe it should be preserved.

Unfortunately, it seems our city government is going to move forward with replacing Duranguito with the arena without letting voters decide. The way the dispute was handled makes one lose confidence in city government, and future bond elections will possibly suffer because of it. That would hurt our city. Hopefully, our current representatives keep that in mind.

Rafael Ortega

East El Paso

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Then-U.S. Rep.-elect Veronica Escobar speaks after being introduced by then-U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke at O’Rourke’s first town hall since the midterm elections in Downtown El Paso.(Photo: Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Times file)

We need honesty from our local leaders

We better start getting complete honesty and truthfulness from our local leaders on this subject of illegal immigration or we are going to lose our fine experiment in democracy. Sometimes the truth can be misleading when it is not the whole truth. When you pick and choose facts that only support your point of view, it is not complete honesty.

Beto O'Rouke, Veronica Escobar and Will Hurd offer information about the serene safety of El Paso streets but say nothing about why. Prior to its safety, Sylvester Reyes, as a Border Patrol official, created a "wall of eyes" belonging to agents who would see one another along the entire length of the El Paso-Juárez border. This stopped the high flow of stolen vehicles from U.S. to Mexico, as well as other crimes that existed for years. Reyes got to Congress because of that.

This "wall of eyes" was replaced by a physical barrier under the George Bush and Barack Obama administrations. This solution is the very thing being discussed and opposed today.

Furthermore, to not now speak of the death of two immigrant children that occurred in the local detention centers, as a crisis, and previously these leaders emphasized those tragedies as callous abuse by the present administration. ... This twisting of information approaches fraudulent propaganda.

We sorely need some statesmanship on this issue — and it starts here at home.